To some extent most of the jobs I find in tech seem to me to be societal busy work. And the people that make those jobs seem to take themselves a bit too seriously.

Thanks. You're putting in words something that was bothering me but didn't manage to name.

Yes, lots of busy work at various levels, from switching to the latest framework to redecorating the website because we can, to actually many companies selling nothing meaningful.

And the more vacuous the work is, the more it starts to feel like a cult. You MUST use framework X or pattern Y or clean/agile/... practice du jour, otherwise you're not one of us.